Laser radars, remote sensing equipment, free space, non-line of sight, satellite communication systems are affected by optical turbulence. In this invention we disclose the atmospheric turbulence mitigation approach in view of communication systems, however this approach is applicable for variety of other arrangements.
The atmospheric turbulence effect, noticeable as beam drift and scintillation, is the main source of errors in the free-space optical communications. It leads to the decreased link capacity, BER deterioration and sometimes unavailability of the transmission. Adaptive optics schemes are widely used for the phase correction. Adaptive optical systems require direct measurement of the wave-front phase using wave-front sensors such as a Shack-Hartmann sensor or shearing interferometer, followed by some type of wavefront reconstruction and conjugation. In the presence of the strong phase and intensity fluctuations characteristic of near-earth propagation paths, these types of systems perform poorly. Besides, such systems cannot compensate fast phase change; their operation speed is limited by the data processing time.
There is a need in an efficient solution of the turbulence effects mitigation in optical systems with laser beam propagation through the atmosphere.